Korean Job Discussion Forums

[max.p]

I greatly appreciate everyone's help about CDI, CBCs, and apostilles. This is probably an annoying topic, so let me know about the way I approach these questions and their answers for everyone's sake. Teaching in Korea is a remarkable opportunity for anyone in my situation, but it seems to only exist on the Internet. I have never been more skeptical about anything in my life.

Your answers to my previous posted topics lead me to a few questions about the application time-line.

This is where I stand:
-I am male, 23, hold a B.A. in Creative Writing.
-I am half-way through the 120-hour i-to-i Online TEFL course. It's been great for grammar rules and lesson-planning advice. I haven't even begun to contact any of the 215 Korean job contacts. I can post all of these in another topic.
-I sent out a request for an FBI Criminal Background Check on July 5. I expect it to come back on August 15 at about the time I finish the Online TEFL program and receive a copy of my diploma Apostilled. I will then send the CBC off to get Apostilled immediately on August 15. I expect the Apostilled CBC to return on September 20. By September 20, I will have emailed all of the 215 job contacts in Korea (I have high hopes).





By August 15, I will have the CBC request, TEFL certificate, an updated resume, passport, passport photocopies, the completed health-check form, and an Apostilled diploma. All I would then need is the Apostilled CBC, sealed transcripts, and a job.

So, today is September 20. I have just received 4 sealed transcripts and the CBC Apostille. I start to apply to recruiters/job-posters. Transcripts will expire on December 20, CBC will expire on February 15, 2012.

I find a job 60 days later on November 20 and the employer sends me the visa issuance number. I mail my passport, other required documents to the Korean Consulate in Chicago. If I send my passport to Chicago on November 20, when will my passport return with a visa?

When should I apply for jobs?
When should I email recruiters?
When should I contact job-posters?

How long do employers (recruiters/job-posters) wait for me to get all of my paperwork complete before they drop me as a potential employee? My magic date will be November 20 if I start applying to jobs immediately after I have received all my required paperwork. How can I push forward my "magic date" considering my situation? Can I apply to jobs today and expect to have a job September 21, the day after I receive all of my paperwork? If my CBC Apostille comes back three weeks early, on September 1, could I apply to recruiters/jobs today (September 1 is in only 34 days).





I expect all paperwork, except for the E-2 visa, to be ready 2 months from today, not unreasonable, but totally dependent on the FBI. When should I begin to contact potential employers?

What are the chances an employer will "stick with me" through September 20 for me to get an Apostille for my CBC? Should I not even bother applying for jobs today? Of course I should, but if I applied on September 20, I could tell an employer that I have all my paperwork and am just waiting for a visa issuance number. Will it help to wait?






Questions 11, 12, and 13: Has anyone ever visited a fortune-teller before their school year started? Did their predictions pan out? What was that experience like? I will definitely go see one once I get over there.

[schwa]

Hey I'm a bit of a mystical flake so I'll share my story. All up in the air & dithering about Korea, I tossed the coins to see what the I Ching might advise.

3 heads, 6 times in a row. My fate was sealed.

Yet to meet an intriguing Korean fortune-teller. Their typical routine is a bit of ritual & a couple obvious suppositions ("I think you're a teacher..."), then they want a few hundred dollars to buy special food offerings & you'll meet under some special waterfall where they'll banish all the obstacles to your good fortune...

I'll let others fill you in on precise application timelines but it sounds like you've got the preliminaries well-sorted.

[max.p]

That was really nice, schwa. I should just follow my interests and consult the I Ching about this whole process.

So the I Ching is the most popular form of divination or fortune-telling in Korea? I think the I Ching is Chinese...does Korea celebrate the Chinese New Year and use the Chinese Zodiac?


*To sum up my situation with a question: Does it make sense to apply to jobs before I receive the Apostille to my Criminal Background Check?

The easiest way to get a first-time job teaching in Korea is to go through a recruiter one finds on Dave's ESL Cafe. True or False.



Other very important questions:
Favorite KPB Baseball Teams: SK Wyverns. Incheon is where I want to go.

What are the differences between the country and the city?

Has anyone visited Pyongyang? Can anyone go? Alone?

[edwardcatflap]

Ask yourself why these fortune tellers work from collapsible wooden tables on the periphery of shopping malls instead of living it up on a tropical island with the winnings from their predicted lottery win. The answer for anyone with half a brain should be obvious.

I worked in Pyongyang for 6 months but if you're not American you can go on a tour for a week or two weeks there (you can buy your ticket alone but must travel with a group of others) through China for an inflated price. Recommended for novelty dining out on the story value, but not much else.

[max.p]

How did you get to work in Pyongyang for six months? I wouldn't let the Dear Leader influence my attraction to divination, but I haven't lived in a Potemkin city before.

Should I just email one of the 215 i-to-i contacts my resume and photo and let them know about my situation? I mean, what could possibly happen? I make them wait 2 months before I get all my paperwork together?

How long would a school wait for a semi-attractive first-timer to get his paperwork in order?

[earthquakez]

Max, you have more than enough in the way of qualifications with your BA in Creative Writing. For a first timer, the Korean teaching market will be two simple choices (although the details get complicated) - the ed system as in elementary, middle school and high school or a private language academy (hagwon).

Youth is sought after here more than experience for reasons of image, superficial notions of how a native English speaking teacher should look, lack of experience which makes young teachers more attractive because they are not familiar with Korea and thus ignorant of many unattractive Korean norms including messing around the employee on matters of pay and conditions etc.

While working in the ed system means far less dishonesty re pay and vacation (and other conditions), I have not one scrap of regret I stopped working in that system. Large classes from 32 to 40 students, lack of co operation from Korean teachers of English, having to be a lesson planning machine for many students who don't give a flying fig about all the time you put in and how well structure your plans are and how interesting they would be if they actually bothered to see your class as a class instead of a time wasting exercise with a waygugin to whom they are not required to show any respect etc etc.

There were some great students with good manners who wanted to learn. They were offset by the attitude that is normal in the ed system - Koreans don't have to show any kind of respect to foreigners because well, we're not Korean. Sometimes this is done habitually with no thought as it is ingrained in the society that foreigners are some kind of disruption and to be tolerated for the English skills they bring but that is all. That is not the attitude of any number of Koreans but it is an attitude that is commonplace.

When my former school started screwing me around re my contract I decided then and there I would not renew and I didn't. They got theirs in hiring a new teacher who was young, female and American (I am a Brit and a guy) who couldn't teach a dog how to sit. Her hopelessness at anything to do with teaching was a nice reward for my school's disrespect.

I went to a hagwon and while my boss was a good man, it is a waste of my skills teaching kids. I found hagwon work much easier as it does not require the huge emounts of energy in endless lesson plans for large classes who mostly do not care about English nor does it require dealing with issues that Korean teachers should deal with such as discipline but they have skived off co teaching because they are 'busy' taking a nap in the staff room.

I am at a different hagwon now and much happier. The money is not as big an issue for me as job satisfaction. Hagwons can burn first timers - be careful. But I guarantee if you go to elementary schools in the school system, you will be incredibly tired from those kids in their large classes.

In middle school you will face large classes of lippy kids who see nothing wrong with playing games or sleeping in class - and often their Korean teachers will make pathetic excuses for this childish refusal to act as if they are in class.

In high school you will face large classes of burnt out kids who want to sleep through your class because they are being stuffed with useless facts to try and get them to university or in the case of non academc students at technical high schools you will face absolutely moronic levels of English despite years of exposure to it in school.

Look up as many job websites as you can - not just Dave's. As for fortune telling - you can do that yourself. My ex was brilliant at reading tarot cards and she taught herself. Buy yourself a pack and learn it while you are waiting to find out what's happening re Korea. Ask questions re the energies surrounding your job hunt and schools etc. You will get more instructive answers that way as well as if you use questions like "What is the best way I an..." Best wishes.

[Fox]

Regarding the above post's depiction of public school class sizes, I think it bears mentioning that if you choose to live in a rural district, your class sizes could be much smaller. I teach at a small rural school, and while I do have a single class that is roughly 30 students in size, most of my classes are 20 students or fewer. My wife also teaches at two rural public schools, and her class sizes range from six to one.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[sojusucks]